


A for Apple

by HappySnow



Series: The Complications of a Family [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 22:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11496390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappySnow/pseuds/HappySnow
Summary: Thalia hates that school leaves her with so little time with Jason but she'll always make the most of her time by having fun and teaching Jason simultaneously.





	A for Apple

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters mentioned below.
> 
> Non-official disclaimer: I haven't written for a very long time so I sincerely apologies for the (still) not-very-up-to-standard writing but I had to start somewhere.
> 
> Note: This work was mostly inspired the small part in The Lost Hero where Piper immediately realise that Thalia is Jason's sister because "something about her voice sounded familiar. It was hard to pin down, but the way she spoke, the way she formed her words, reminded her of Jason".

Thalia hated group work. Usually, she would do her best to do just about as little as everyone else does, submitting the lowest standard of work possible for nearly every project. But ever since Jason hit his first birthday, she has been thinking of putting in more effort to her schoolwork to set a good example for him in the future. Gods, she hated being an older sister, having to behave and work hard to make sure Jason grew up well. So there she was, struggling with her dyslexia alone (special thanks to her precious teammates, Jasper, Lilian and Flynn) until nearly the end of the day to finish the project and hopefully get an A this time.

Well, with her luck, her mom has probably brought home another man with her, and is messing around getting ridiculously drunk right in front of Jason. Thalia wishes she would at least attempt to get out of the house to spare Jason the rubbish or not cause him to ask unwanted question. She is immensely grateful for little mercy that is her mother not taking drugs (until she remembers that this is not something she should be worried about). She has already caught Jason playing with an empty vodka bottle although she sincerely hope that her mother had drained it and not Jason. He hadn’t seem very drunk but she had never been sure and sometimes wonders if she should drop school altogether. Yet that seems like a bad example for Jason.

“THALIA!!” The door had only been pushed opened by a fraction when she found her baby brother tottering down the stairs. Before she could react, he had rushed forward clumsily, tackling her lower shin and wrapping his tiny arms around her legs. With all the effort drained out of her, she should have stumbled or at least grimaced but it was as though her baby brother had healing properties. She felt twice as alive as she felt before she left for school and it took her little to no effort to scoop Jason up in her arms.

“Hey to you too, my little Munchkin!” she laughed, tossing him up a few times to his delight. Something told her that she must have really hated being tossed when she was young (or dropped, maybe that’s what resulted in her fear) but Jason seems to really enjoy it and no matter how tired her arms are from baseball today, she’d toss him for as long as it would keep him giggling.

Carrying Jason to their room while he babbled in the best English he could muster about his baby doll Renee and the bubbles that they have managed to form out of the bubble blower she bought him a few days ago, Thalia tried her best to understand the gibberish her brother was sprouting. At some point, he had gotten so excited he had slipped into full gibberish and she had no idea what he was talking about. Perhaps Jason had sensed this as his voice trailed off as he stared at her with his big round eyes, clearly distressed that he couldn’t explain his joy.

Upon reaching their room, Jason dragged out the Big Book of Words to Thalia, pointing aggressively at the book. “Reet me,” he demanded, pushing the book towards me.

Thalia laughed. “Read it to you?” Jason nodded vigorously. “Well, if you insist.” Her brother was really a weirdo. What kind of child loves reading that much? Yet, dyslexic or not, she couldn’t find it in her to refuse when he’s making such desperate attempts to communicate with her. “A for apple,” she began, glancing over at Jason to see if he was following (he always was).

“Ae for eeper!” he declared.

“Apple, not eeper,” she tried, attempting to correct his speech. It never quite works and sometimes, she feels like it will never work but she must try. She doesn’t know much about teaching or raising a toddler but she tried her best to gather information, even attempting to read Maria Montessori’s “The Child in a Family” and other parenting book despite her dyslexia.

“Eh-ee-pel,” he tried, dragging out the letters.

Thalia grinned. “That’s a bit better!” she encouraged. “B for ball.”

“Paul!”

“Buh, Jason, buh. Ball,” she repeated.

“Ball?”

“That’s perfect! Wonderful!! Okay, so C for cat.”

“Kit.”

“Cat. Eh.”

“K-eh… Cat?”

“Mmhmm, that’s good. So next, here’s D for…” Thalia blinked. The words were starting to flow off the page and she could never remember this series of rubbish words that they taught children. What was ‘D’ for? Dagger? Danger? No, she needed a child-appropriate word! “D for dinosaur!” She winced. Perhaps not the most child appropriate but that was at least better than dagger or danger, she supposes.

“Tee for Tainasa,” Jason repeated and it took all her effort not to laugh. Her effort was clearly inadequate as Jason attempted to glare at her, perhaps in the way she glares at her mother sometimes. The weak glare served to do nothing except to weaken her resolve and burst out laughing. Jason attempted to look annoyed but he lasted close to about ten seconds before he was laughing as well, rolling around the bed.

Perhaps they had made too much noise because right at that moment, the door flung open, revealing an enraged and drunk Beryl Grace. “Be quiet, it’s too lake… late for you two to be down… up… doing such rubber… rubbish!” she hollered, stumbling over her words pathetically.

So much for her good fortune up till now. Thalia drew herself to full height, or as high as her little nine years old body would allow. “You shut up,” she told her mother firmly. “It’s eight, definitely not too late for Jason to be up. You, on the other hand, are just about drunk enough to sleep forever. You talk worse than Jason! Leave us alone!”

“Leeb us uh… uh-raw-n!” A small voice called from the bed and both mother and daughter turned to face the little boy. They found his eyes trained expectantly on Thalia, shining brightly with satisfaction as he attempted to repeat after her.

Her mother, apparently deciding in her drunken state that she didn’t want to bother with them anymore stumbled, almost underperforming Jason in the movement department as well as she returned to wherever she would likely crash for the next 12 hours. 

“There! We chased her out.” Thalia said proudly.

“Dare wee chay-zuh-duh her owt,” Jason repeated.

Thalia frowned. “Are you imitating me?”

“Aa… aaa yoo,” stretching the vowel out, Jason frowns, clearly upset that he hadn’t gotten it on his first try. “Aaa yoouuu ehmehteh…” His brows furrowed further, “ehmehtahty meh!” Jason attempted, smiling proudly as he finished the sentence with a four syllables word (although he was unlikely to understand syllables yet).  
Thalia tried to look annoyed, she really did, but it was hard to when her baby brother was being so adorable. She giggles instead, pulling Jason into a hug and if possible, her baby brother looks even more pleased with himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for Thalia's really bad roast to her mother. She's only 9 here, after all.
> 
> Note: This is part of the series where I'll delve mostly into Thalia and Jason's sibling relationship after missing over 10 years of their lives together. After all, there's this lttle part in The Lost Hero where Jason kind of angst about whether Thalia looked for him as hard as she looked for Percy. ("And she seemed so set on finding her friend Percy. Had she ever searched for Jason that way?") Please don't expect it to come out soon though because I take 100 years to finish like a chapter T.T


End file.
